It's often said swimming makes your shoulders wider, perhaps breaststroke and butterfly in particular? Are there any real swimmers here who can confirm this with their personal experience?
If true, what length of time and intensity of swimming did it take to result in such changes? I suspect this can happen only to competitive swimmers.
I have naturally wide shoulders - and narrower hips, simply due to bone structure. I do notice when I swim, I carry more muscle in my upper body - lats, arms, and lots of smaller back muscles. The effect of having more muscle on my upper body makes me look even wider in the shoulders. I swam in college and needed a size 6 skirt and a size 14 jacket for an interview suit in the early 80's. Due to size inflation, I fit more easily into tops now, but sometimes can't find skirts, pants or shorts that are small enough. And I have tops that fit in the shoulders and are enormous around the waist. So, jackets are hard unless they are custom made.
--mj
I have naturally wide shoulders - and narrower hips, simply due to bone structure. I do notice when I swim, I carry more muscle in my upper body - lats, arms, and lots of smaller back muscles. The effect of having more muscle on my upper body makes me look even wider in the shoulders. I swam in college and needed a size 6 skirt and a size 14 jacket for an interview suit in the early 80's. Due to size inflation, I fit more easily into tops now, but sometimes can't find skirts, pants or shorts that are small enough. And I have tops that fit in the shoulders and are enormous around the waist. So, jackets are hard unless they are custom made.
--mj
